To leave work after thirty-five or forty years may sound like a great idea. You may be ready to go. But when you begin to consider the reality of what life will be like after retirement, the uncertainty can be pretty intimidating. If you haven’t planned, you may be dragging your heels. You may have…
Springboard to Riches A number of years ago a man named Rick called us to sell a division of his company. As we began our Comprehensive Business Analysis, we started hearing that the business was not operating very well. While sales were in excess of $100 million, pre-tax profits the previous year were only $100,000.…
A dishonest business owner discovers the domino effect … the hard way. Early in my career I was selling a mid-sized restaurant in a shopping mall. It was a nice restaurant, family style, licensed, table seating of a hundred and twenty with ten bar stools. The statements showed a reasonable profit, not great, but reasonable.…
Burnout is a very real problem and shouldn’t be taken lightly. It’s a state of emotional and physical exhaustion. It’s caused by excessive and prolonged stress. Burnout reduces productivity and saps energy. It leaves its victim feeling hopeless, powerless, and resentful. Burnout can threaten jobs, relationships, and health. It certainly affects a business owner’s judgment. We…
A buyer from Buffalo came to me and wanted to buy an electronics business. “Really? An electronics business?” I said. “What kind of electronics business?” Rusty told me he wanted to buy one that manufactured printed circuit boards. Now that’s a pretty complex process. And he wanted one that could also do automatic soldering. As…
Perception Is Everything We were called in one day to look at a company that was in the specialized trucking business. Milt had forty trucks and substantial customers. He was thirty-seven or thirty-eight years old and looked like he was fifty. And as I got to know him, I found out that he worked roughly…
A banker was put in a difficult position with two partners who were fighting. The only thing he could do was call in their loans, because their business was making no money. “I don’t know if you can do anything about this,” he told me, “but I recommended that they talk to you.” “Am I…
The following is a great example of the complexity of family-run businesses. It’s often just one thing that needs fixing. Out of the Shadows Approximately eighteen years ago I was approached by Graham, who wanted to know if I could put a value on his business. Of course I said yes. While our Comprehensive Business…
Industrial espionage, stealing trade secrets, sounds like something out of a comic book. It’s not comical at all. It’s very real. Although little attention is given to it, this kind of espionage is of immense proportions and growing every day. In this story, the name of the process, the trade secret, has been changed considerably…
In spite of all the clichés that we hear about banks lending money as an umbrella and wanting the umbrella back when it rains, there are many great success stories about how bankers can help a businessperson. For example, they can help owners make a quick solution. The following is an excerpt from Doug’s book “There’s…